Of Love and Potato Chips
by demigod-from-galifrey
Summary: When Will gets his drivers license, he, Nico, and Lou Ellen decide to go on a road trip around the country with no distinct destination and 14 days to drive. It should be a blast, right? Except Nico's grumpy and Lou Ellen is an absolute champ at ruining the moment, so who knows?
1. Chapter 1

Will ran up to Nico with a huge grin on his face  
"GUESS WHO GOT HIS DRIVER'S LICENSE!"  
"Uh i give up. Who?" Nico replied with almost no noticeable emotion  
"ME!"  
"Thats great. Where are you planing on useing this licence? You can't go anywhere other than camp."  
"You're just jealous because you can't get you licence for another year!"  
"Can I even get a license?"  
"What?"  
"Well I'm not sure I'm even a citizen of this country. Also, according to my record, I should be 80 something. And dead."  
"I don't know how how to respond to that. Anyway, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!"  
"That the good people of the road will soon be subjected to the horror that is will solace driving a car?"  
"Uh, no. ROAD TRIP!"

Nico rolled his eyes, "and how are you planning on doing this? Chiron would never let you go on a road trip!"  
"First of all, not me, we, were going together, and I already asked Chiron- he said yes!"  
Nico froze  
We're going together?  
'Calm down' Nico told himself 'It's not like will said we were going to be alone, right? Nothing to get worked up about'  
"We? Are you suggesting that I'm coming too? With you at the wheel?" Nico asked sarcastically  
"If you want. Lou Ellen's coming too"  
Nico snorted "I'm only coming if she's driving!"  
"Part of the way, yeah"

An hour later, they were piled into Will's minivan ("All Apollo kids get cars for graduation on the year they learn to drive" "and you chose a minivan?") With a suitcase each and an allotted 2 weeks for the road trip. Will was driving, with Nico in the passenger side and Lou Ellen in the back seat. Even with so few people, it was starting to feel crowded. Not to mention that they were now in the middle of nowhere and the only radio station that came in halfway well was an awful oldies country station with music too old for Will and too young for nico, yet that Lou Ellen, for some reason, seemed to really enjoy.  
"Why did I agree to this?" Nico mumbled  
"Because you loooooovvvveeee meeee" Will laughed  
Nico huffed "you got me there"  
"You two are adorable. Where are the potato chips?"  
Will laughed as Nico blushed tomato red and sunk into the seat  
"No, really, I'm starving. I need me some salt and vinegar chips!"  
Will laughed "Wayback seat, right on top"

 **So for the first time I'm actually planning on making a full, multi-chapter story. I saw a post on tumblr about a "road trip au" and got really into the idea. then I rpd it. and then I rpd it again for some reason? And then I finally got around to writing it. So this is the first chapter, and I'll continue to update it, though for how long depends on the response I get. also, if you don't know what Lou Ellen was referring to: you know those little tiny bags of chips that come in the big giant bags that have like all different kinds of little chips in them? She's talking about those. In my experience with road trips, those little chip bags become about 90% of your diet. That and gas station coffee and vending machine soda and candy.**

 **-demigod-from-gallifrey**


	2. Chapter 2

The thing about minivans is that they have three rows of seating. Theres the front seat, two chairs consisting of a driver's side and a passenger side. Then there's the backseat, a bench seat big enough to hold three people or so. And of course, the wayback seat. Another bench directly behind the back seat. As anyone who has ever been on a road trip, or who has read John Green's Paper Towns, would know, the wayback seat is the best place to sleep. The wayback seat is quiet and dark and you can't hear anything else in the car, just the relaxing, and semi hypnotic, sound of the road under the minivans tires.

Unfortunately for Nico, on this particular road trip the wayback seat was filled with junk, and the only place to sleep was the back seat, which is where Nico was now laying. He was drifting in and out of conscious, absently hearing but not listing to the conversation from upfront between Will and Lou Ellen.

Until he heard something that caught his attention.

"This was a bad idea." Will's voice

"How?" Lou Ellen replied

"It's not safe. I put you and Nico in danger, there could be monsters anywhere!"

"You're being ridiculous."

" Are you kidding? We've been out here a day, _a day,_ And I've already seen three Mormo and a Lamia! Why can't we just have a normal road trip like normal godsdamned americans?!"

"Is it really a good idea for us to say godsdamn?"

"It's a movie reference. Zombieland."

"I know, but still"

"Not the point! The point is that I put you two in danger and it's my fault if anything happens and oh my gods we should just go home!"

"Will, no. We agreed to this, if something happens it's our faults. You need to understand that you can't just keep everyone safe! I doubt anything's going to happen, anyway."

Nico decided he had heard enough. Who needs sleep, anyway?

He stretched and sat up. "Mornin."

Lou Ellen and will both stopped the conversation immediately.

"Only just barely." Will smiled, pointing to the clock from the passenger side- funny, when nico had gone to sleep Will had been driving.

It had also been 9 o'clock, but now it was 3 am.

"6 hours. What is that, a new record?" Lou Ellen joked

"Hmm, yeah, probably." Nico muttered.

 **A wild plot appears! So to recap: Will is overprotective and the back seats of minivans suck. The whole hearing everything in the minivan thing isn't an exaggeration, either. seriously, like I have very vivid memories of just about every road trip I've been on being half asleep and accidentally listening in on conversations I probably shouldn't have.**

 **any way…**

 **until next time!**

 **-demigod-from-galifrey**

 **mormo/ lamia: blood sucking vampire demons from greek mythology. YAY! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Someone asked if Nico and Will were together in this fic: Yes, they are, and this is a little over a year after boo, so they started dating just under a year ago (they were friends a bit before going out) sorry for not including this info before!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fall Out Boy, Hank Green, or PJO.**

"Where are we?" Nico asked. He himself was in the backseat, while Lou Ellen was riding shotgun and Will was driving, but he was more than likely referring to the state or city that they were in, and not the position in the minivan.

"Pennsylvania" Will replied, "There was a sign a while back, didn't you see it?"

Nico shook his head, and then remembered that Will couldn't actually see him so he said "no, I didn't"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because the radio is literally not working, at all, and I thought maybe we had accidentally gone off the grid or something" nico replied sarcastically. He was not incurrect, they were in the middle of nowhere and the radio wasn't picking up anything.

Lou Ellen nodded, which Nico could see because she was leaned over into the middle area and reaching up to press a button on the ceiling. When she reached the button, a brown rectangle slowly dropped out of the ceiling.

"CD, case" She explained to Nico as she flipped through the disks, looking for one to listen to.

"When the hades did you put those in there?!" Will looked back at Lou Ellen

"EYES ON THE ROAD!" Nico yelled

"Oh, calm down Nico," Lou Ellen said as will turned back to driving, "Anyway, I put them there when you were inviting Nico to our little adventure"

"You didn't even have keys then, though!"

Lou Ellen laughed "Who needs keys? Oh, there it is!"

She took out a case decorated with two guys walking down a street and Nico was immediately confused.

And then Lou Ellen put the CD in and pressed the skip button a couple times to get to the right song, and started singing along

" _I don't know where you're going,_

 _But do you got room for one more troubled soul_

 _I don't know where I'm going,_

 _But I don't think I'm coming home_

 _And I said, I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead_

 _This is the road to ruin and we're starting at the end"_

Nico cut off Lou Ellen's singing "What the hades is this?!"

As the song started going "Uh, uh, uh, uh-oh" Lou ellen said "Alone Together, by Fall Out Boy" before catching right on to " _Cut me off, I lost my track_

 _It's not my fault, I'm a maniac_

 _It's not funny anymore, no it's not"_ perfectly on beat, as though she had rehearsed.

Will started humming along, and then singing (horribly, but that's okay) and then Nico started tapping his foot against the minivans floor, but not singing, and eventually the whole song had played through.

"Okay," will said "My turn" he reached up and grabbed the bottom CD, a black and grey case, and putting it into the cd player, and pressing skip a few times as well

A weird melody poured from the speakers, it sounded like the theme from an old scifi

"this is weirder than the first one!" Nico exclaimed

Lou Ellen picked up the CD case "Incongruent? That's not an album name, It's a math term!"

and then the words actually started.

" _Well a quark can never exist by itself in isolation_

 _something very odd happens when you try to separate them_

 _the energy it takes those two best friends_

 _is just enough to create two more to join back up with them_ "

Lou Ellen covered her ears dramatically and Nico shouted "What the actual hades is going on?!"

"It's a song! Hank green! Gah, none of you have good taste in youtube!"

Lou Ellen took the disk out about halfway through the song "Nope" she said, as she set another CD back in, this time a country cd that was quite different from "Alone Together" to say the least.

they spent the rest of the day listening to Lou Ellen's numerous CDs, which, Nico had to admit, was quite fun.

 **you know those people who listen to like every kind of music ever? yeah, that's what i headcanon lou ellen as being. will's song is a real song by a real person named hank green and it's actually one of my fav songs tbh. also, if you read my other stories you would know this is totally plot copied off of a chapter of what if, but i like this idea so i did it anyway**

 **-demigod-from-gallifrey**


	4. Chapter 4

Will was tired. Like, really tired. So he decided to try and keep himself up by talking- which turned out to have… interesting consequences.

"So where'o yall think we should go next?" He said to both Lou Ellen and Nico, "I mean, this is a road trip, right? But we ain't exactly been doin much sightseein."

Lou ellen spoke first "No, we ain't, darlin, y'all wanna go to the saloon, maybe? Or how bout one o them there fancy worlds largest balls of twine!" She laughed, and Will was confused

"Why are you talkin like that, le?" (He pronounced the nickname like 'ell ee')

"Cause you are! You're talking all… southern!" She whisper shouted- Will noticed that the entire conversation was consisting of whispers, despite the fact that no one was asleep and there was really no reason to be whispering. Maybe 12 am was just a very whispery time.

"Probly cause I am southern! I guess the accent comes about when I'm tired… huh, never noticed that before" He started to turn around to face Lou Ellen, but Nico whisper shouted "Eyes on the road!" before continuing "I just realized, I never knew where you were from…"

"Amarillo Texas!" Will said proudly, to which Lou Ellen mumbled "A bisexual vegetarian from Texas, now that makes perfect sense" and Will laughed

Nico frowned "Maybe we should find somewhere to sleep…"

"Why?" Will asked "Sleepin in the van has been workin just fine so far, ain't it?"

"I'm just saying, if you're too tired to speak proper english, maybe you're too tired to drive!"

Will was about to defend himself, when Lou ellen said "Yeah, that's a good idea, let's get a hotel"

So they started looking at street signs to see where hotels were, finally finding one and turning down the exit.

Will payed for the room -he had brought a few hundred dollars with him for the trip- and they all raced upstairs to find the room despite their tiredness. Will reached the room first, closely followed by Nico- Lou Ellen was nowhere in sight. They opened the door to an unpleasant surprise- the room only had 2 beds. The pair stood there staring at eachother for a bit until Lou Ellen came running up behind, holding a small bag of salt and vinegar potato chips "Vending machine" she explained, before seeing the room. She looked at the beds. Then the boys. Then the beds again. Then the boys again. Then she huffed and grabbed one of the pillows off of each bed and laid herself on the floor.

"You don't have to-" Will started, only to be cut off;

"I don't need any of your southern hospitality, you romantically awkward weirdo, just go to sleep!" Lou Ellen tried to sound angry, but she was laughing and so was Will.

 **I dumped quite a few Will Solace headcannons on you there, didn't I? Well, either way, we had fun! Updates will be a lot more common after this, sorry about the hiatus! I based Will's accent off my own, which is Houstonian (my accent works the same way his does, none normally but when I'm angry or tired or something like that, I get a slight southern accent)- I actually have no idea if the Amarillo accent is different, so sorry if that was incorrect! Thanks so much for reading!**

 **-demigod-from-gallifrey**


End file.
